I would like to start a special thread with special rules. To keep the thread readable only a single post per L5-owner should be written and edited once the facts change. I am curious about what people really do with their L5 and where they succeed.
Please do not comment any post. If you have ideas or comments you could write a pm to that person, maybe the use case can be improved.
What do you think?
Would it be possible to delete posts that are just comments to cleanup the thread and keep readabilty?
i installed openssh-server and was immediatly able to access the device. I can easily handle the administrative tasks.
Location
i tried the Maps program with not that much success, the location was put to Hamburg which is 200km away. this is done by asking Mozilla which resolves the IP to a location, gps is used only after installing gnss-share
News Feed
i was able to import my news feeds from an android phone and can snagly read the posts. only the wipe to advance to the next post is missing
Messaging
i did not find Matrix yet
Playing
i like 2048 but that reveals problems with the touch screen
Camera
The pic is terribly dark. Found no way to enable flash.
The points in “Working use cases” is what I regularly use my L5 for.
The points in “Kinda works” is what I usually do on my Android phone but occasionally do on the L5.
The points in “Doesn’t work” I always use my Android phone for.
I am not using the modem and don’t have a SIM-card for my L5. I will continue to use the L5 as a secondary device to my Android phone until more of these use-cases are working better.
Working use cases
Browsing linux news (Phoronix)
Diary notetaking (simple-diary-gtk)
Music
Compared to @Archninja I’ve had the opposite experience, very good sound quality on the Librem 5. I use Lollypop as well.
Rarely stutters a little bit while the phone is locked. I remember reading somewhere that it’s due to the phone locking the RAM frequency when locked or something like that and progress is being made to fix that.
File sync
I sync my music, documents and linux dotfiles with syncthing to my phone to the sd-card from my server and desktop.
Kinda works
Bluetooth headphones
Playback is fine, microphone sounds bad
Watching YouTube
Slow and webpage doesn’t adapt properly in firefox
Browsing reddit
Webpage is slow and their mobile page is not adapting properly in firefox
The native GTK app giara is very buggy and slow, not sure why
Camera
Needs a lot of manual tweaking to get a good picture, but works fine.
OK for basic tasks if you have the time to fiddle around
Mail
Geary works, but it is a little slow and the mobile interface could be improved
Doesn’t work
Battery life is weak. 9hrs of standby battery life is not enough (tried both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz wifi, always modem off)
Swedish BankID to authenticate with my bank
Chromecast (have not tried though, just assuming it doesn’t work)
WiFi - both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz work but the former has better range and consumes less power
mobile data (limited testing)
frequently use ssh in to the phone and have used sftp to transfer files to and from the phone
Email
did an initial contacts import of several hundred contacts using Contacts Importer
use Geary for email - use it every day - more receive than send but both work
Geary works well - responsive and adaptive
Music
use Lollypop for playing music
Lollypop works well - responsive and adaptive
I’ve mostly listened via basic analog headphones, where the sound quality is pretty decent
Other apps
Dictionary app - usable but requires more work to be fully adaptive
Clocks for alarms
played around with the Drawing app - it mostly works but haven’t really had cause to use it for anything serious
have minicom installed for talking directly to the modem
Settings, Terminal, Screen Shot are useful and/or essential utilities
USB peripherals
random flash drive (with USB-C to USB-A adapter)
USB-C SSD (2 different models)
gigabit ethernet dongle (with USB-C to USB-A adapter)
The GbE dongle is great because if someone breaks the WiFi badly, I can still get on the internet to download updates to fix the problem.
Bluetooth peripherals
keyboard
speakers
The out-of-the-box success with the above USB and Bluetooth peripherals is a testament to the benefits of the approach of working with a standard Linux kernel. A lot of stuff “just works”.
Random other phone stuff
uSD card - I’ve put some of my music collection on a uSD card and put it in the phone - enough music so that I don’t get bored listening to the same thing over and over
smartcard - it is recognised and I put a PIN on it but I haven’t learnt enough yet in order to do good things with it
backup - we all do backups, right? - an external SSD (or other drive) can be used to back up the uSD card and I booted Jumpdrive on the Librem 5 in order to back up the eMMC drive
auto-rotate of the screen works
charging - I have an external charger and a spare battery (hence I can charge a battery outside of the Librem 5) and I also have a car charger (just a standard USB-C / USB-A charger) for charging the Librem 5 in the car
Semi-working stuff
Camera - has worked, then not worked, now working again - but, regardless, the software needs a fair bit of work
Convergence / external monitor - recognises external monitor but that’s about it for me - trying to get something fully usable hasn’t been a priority for me as yet
GNSS - downloaded ephemeris etc. from the satellite and got a fix with valid latitude and longitude but needs integration with the rest of the software e.g. would like the camera software to geotag any photo taken
The above post is mostly a summary of: [MyL5] Australia/New Zealand As per the (unofficial) rules of this topic … any questions or comments can be posted there.
Like a small political pressure group I use my L5 to push me to change. I am sad to say my old beaten up android phone is still my main driver. I keep my L5 by my bed and open it up regularly to look for a better way to be.
It has led to me leaving (most of) Google’s ecosystem behind. I was one of the first to use Gmail and had been for … How long has it been? 20 odd years, 15 of which I felt increasingly uncomfortable. Android kept me on their platform but now thanks to my L5 I can see a way out. I’m really a technical Luddite, in the original sense. As I get older I am less inclined to engage in the cutting edges, I’ve had enough cuts to learn.
My L5 is mainly used for email and the federated social network (https://social.mjd.id.au/profile/trregeagle) I also use Syncthing to synchronise files with my Librem14. I often tinker on it via MOSH/SSH.
I’m so pleased the camera is now working and will be taking my L5 out for a bicycle ride today to get a few snaps. Battery Life has not worried me as my bicycle has a SON hub dynamo to keep the L5 going.
Nice idea for a thread, I’ll look forward to see how things evolve.
